5.20.13

Hi Everyone!

Things here are pretty good. We had Brother Toombs and Frankie's baptism on Saturday. It was really beautiful. There were so many  people who came from the ward to support them. I sang Lead Kindly Light as a special musical number. It wasn't too bad I guess. Frankie and Bob were both so sweet and so excited. Bob had to take his hearing aids out for his baptism so he couldn't hear the prayer. He just stood in the font and plugged his nose the whole time so he would be ready to get dunked. It was pretty cute. When he came up he looked at the little kids sitting in front of the font and asked "did that make ya smile?" Frankie was so sweet too. He came with a fresh hair cut and the biggest smile i have ever seen on anyone's face. I love watching the joy that the gospel brings to people!
In other news, Viola has a baptismal date! She will be getting baptized on June 15th. She came to the baptism on Saturday to see how everything happens and she loved it. We have been helping her plant flowers in her yard over the past few weeks. We have been having the best conversations and are really getting to know her. She is truly an amazing person and is very in tune with the spirit. I really love her! She is going to teach us how to make tortillas. I am really excited! Life here is great! I love the gospel and I love this calling. I am learning and growing everyday. Love you and I am glad that everything at home is good!!

Have a happy summer!

4.29.13

Hello All!

The work here is still going strong. We found 6 new investigators this week and are planning a baptism on May 11th for two of our investigators in Vale, OR. It is pretty exciting! One is a 14 year old boy named Frankie, he has taken all of the lessons and has been waiting for his mom's permission to be baptized (which we got last week). He is a really sweet kid and he loves learning about the gospel. I am so glad that he will finally be able to continue in his eternal progression by being baptized. 
Our other Investigator who will hopefully be baptized on that date is an older man named Bob, he is 86 and his wife is a member, she is reaching the end of her life and they want to be sealed in the temple. When we extended the invitation to be baptized on May 11th he said he would try to stop by. We know that he wants to be baptized and most likely will be but he needs to build his faith a little. He said that if God was watching out for him that He would keep the ground squirrels (some form of vermin that pray on gardens) out of his garden. So we prayed with him for that and hopefully our prayer will be answered and help him have a faith building experience. 
I am doing missionary work, eating delicious but fattening food at members and nothing but health food at home, seeing lots of farms/old people/cute houses/cows/pigs/chickens/dogs/prairie grass, talking about the gospel with investigators and anything pertaining to ridiculousness or sarcasm with my companion. She is super funny and sarcastic. It is great. We get along quite nicely. She is kind of like Jared but a girl and with less rage. Life is good out here in the country and I am starting to love it a little-lol I dont know how I will feel when I am back in civilization again... Anyways, keep me posted on your life and such! Love you mucho!!

Madison

4.22.13

Helloooooooooo!!!

Glad to hear that everything is going well at home! Everything here is great as well. Still allergic to cats, but I prayed that fewer people would have cats that we visited this week and it has been working out pretty well. lol Guess God answers even silly prayers :). 

We are teaching a lot of people and always have a lot of lessons and visits, but we only have one progressing investigator currently (please pray that more of our investigators will begin to progress). Her name is Viola, she is in her 50s and suffers from R.A. really badly. She was married to an LDS man when she was young for several years but it ended badly and she has not had anything to do with the church since. She lives around the corner from grandma and the last missionaries in the area found her. She is reading the Book of Mormon and sometimes we just read along with her. She says that the BoM answers all of the questions she has had about the Bible her whole life. She believes that it is true and thinks that she will be baptized eventually but does not want to be pressured. I know that she will be ready soon though! I love this work! 

I have started reading in the Old Testament as well as starting the Book of Mormon over for my personal study, there is so much that we can learn from the scriptures that I never realized before!! I feel like in my life I have always had times where I just need to be quiet and listen and learn and I have times where I can be bold and outspoken. I feel that right now is a time in my mission and in my life to be quiet and to learn all that I can so that I when the time for me to be bold comes I will be ready. I love teaching but most of the time I feel that I learn more form the people and lessons than they do. I guess that is just a side effect of missionary work. 

You asked about my days, so on a regular day we wake up and run and study and get ready and then go out to work. We usually have a dinner with members around 5 or 6 and then we work some more until 9 and then go home and plan for the next day and go to bed. It is pretty structured but changes every day because we are always somewhere different. We only sleep somewhere else when we are in Vale (usually only 1 or 2 nights out of the week) and we stay with a family there. They are the Romans's and they have 5 little kids and a baby  on the way. The remind me so much of our family when everyone was little and cute and crazy! We will be staying with them tonight. On p-day, we do normal studies and stuff in the morning and then we clean our apartment, get ready and drive to Ontario, OR to shop and email and play B-ball with the elders in our zone. It is pretty fun and relaxing.  I love you and send my love to everyone else too!

Your Sister, 

Madison Baker

4.15.13

HIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!

I love hearing all of the fun things from home!! Everything here is going well and Daniealle's baptism went smoothly on saturday. Yesterday we gave a fireside to the young women in the Vale wards. We were asked to talk about how we prepared for our missions/how they can prepare to be missionaries. I talked about the young women theme and how if we live by the words that are recited in the theme each week, we will automatically become missionaries. Especially as we "stand as a witness of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places". 

So, last Wednesday Sister Dickey and I were stuck in the lovely and tiny town of Parma (we usually visit about two towns in a day) so we pretty much exhausted all of our teaching/visiting/tracting pool by about 2:30 or so. We were getting pretty grumpy and complainy about the work in Parma and we were getting pretty frustrated. So we went back to our apartment to work on some teaching records and such and whine a little. I had a letter on my desk from uncle Bryce to all of the family missionaries and it was mostly just a bunch of quotes and such. One of the quotes read "The Lord will direct your steps, but first you must move your feet." I read it out loud and we decided that we wouldn't get anywhere sitting at our desks doing records. We decided to move our feet. Sister Dickey felt that we needed to visit a random less-active widow so we headed out with a prayer of repentance for our murmuring  On our way to visit the widow we found two new investigators, one of which we have already taught again.  After we taught lessons to each of these new people, we finally went to visit the widow who ended up not even being home. Every day we see these miracles that could easily be written off or forgotten about, but I know that the Lord is the Director of this work and that He is listening to our prayers. I also know that you dont have to be on a mission to see little miracles in your life--if you look for them they will be there and the Lord will direct you too as long as you move your feet.

Love,

Sister Baker

P.S. You should frame the cow ear or something, don't throw it away!! I wish I had gotten more pics from the branding because by the end I was doing that by myself instead of with two men helping me hold the calf down. I am so glad that Jared got a job at banana! You should tell him to send me clothes!

Q and A

This week my Mom sent Maddy a bunch of questions. These are her answers. (and FYI "Grandma" is the lady she is living with.)

Q: What are your sleeping and studying arrangements like?

A: We sleep in a bunk bed that looks like the one the boys slept in when they were little, the beds are really comfy though.

    
Q: What is the house like that you live in, do you eat breakfast there?

A: We live in a little studio apartment that was added on to Grandma's house, we eat breakfast and lunch there most days. Some days we go to a town about 35 miles away called vale and sleep there, it is not my favorite.

Q: How is Grandma? Does she have pets?

A: Grandma is great, she is a really sweet old lady, she loves to come chat with us in the mornings while we study and she really takes care of us. We watched conference with her and her family this weekend. She has an evil cat that makes me really sick but he does not come into our part of the house so I am ok unless I go into her family room or something.

 

Q: Who are you teaching? We can pray for them.

A: We are teaching a bunch of people! One of our investigators, Danielle, is getting baptized on Saturday-it is pretty exciting. We also just started teaching Armando. He is really sincere and searching for the truth. He has committed to working towards baptism and praying and reading the BOM. We are teaching several other people but I can hardly keep everyone straight. We work in about 5 towns and have between 1-3 investigators in each. We spend certain days in certain towns, so we kind of have to focus on one town at a time. It is weird and a little stressful sometimes. We think they will be splitting the area soon though.

Q: Have you met anyone related to Delbert and Olive yet? PS I visit teach Gina Cook now (Cheyenne Bramwell mom). Her Grandma lives in Nyssa also. I will need to ask her name.

A: YES! We ate dinner with some petersons last week, I cant remember first names but they said they were related to Delbert. Let me know that lady's name when you remember.

 

Q: How long has your companion been out on her mission?

A: My comp has been out 10 months

Q: How is the weather?

A: The weather is really nice but windy the last few days

Q: Food situation?

A: Food is not bad, I am actually losing weight because I am eating smaller portions and only buy healthy food for eating at home. Not much time to cook though :(

Q: Do you guys drive everywhere?

A: We drive most places, sometimes we walk in Parma when we are close to home.

Q: Are your shoes working ok for the dirt on the farms?

A: Not really, but its ok. I mostly wear the brown sandle-ish shoes and they do ok

Q: Do you need anything that I can send you?

A: I dont know, anything random and fun. 

Q: Are there stores in the small towns that you are living and working in?

A: Not really, they each have like a small market and a few small local businesses. We drive about 40 miles on modays for the WalMart.

Q: Have you milked a cow?

A: I have not milked a cow but have participated in a cattle branding. Way more cool than milking a cow. I sent you a souvenir :)

 

 

Technologically Challenged

I tried to post the pictures and letter together, but to no avail. So here is the quick update for the week!

Hello!
Things are great and Easter was fun! We ate with a family in Nyssa and had chicken legs and baked potatoes wrapped in bacon... I am literally going to die of a heart attack! We have been teaching a ton and I am loving it here! I am learning how to slow down and not be such a tightwad... I miss the city but there is a nice charm out here (it smells a bit like cow poo but is nice anyways). I miss you and love you! I don't really know what else to tell you about, but I will send you my journal when it is full so you can know all about what I have been up to that I can't remember to write.
Love,
Sister Baker

Pictures! 4.1.13